Embracing technology: When gadgets rule the world

What if you had a home that knew when to wake you up, turn off your alarm, brew you a fresh pot of coffee, and make your bed in less than a minute, not to mention allow you to feed the dog remotely from your smartphone?

The future is here—that technology exists today.

Some of these gadgets are available now, while others, including driverless cars, will be released later in our lifetime.

“It’s going to bring advances. It’s going to change the way we live. It’s going to change how long we live and how we live,” Melissa Lee, host of CNBC’s “Fast Money” and “Options Action,” said Wednesday during an Afternoon MoJoe web-exclusive interview.

Lee explores these so-called “Internet of things” in a new CNBC documentary “Rise of the Machines.” Devices—including “smart” phones, homes, and computers—will change the way we work, travel, and treat diseases.

She sat behind the wheel inside a moving, driverless car during filming for the television special. While the vehicle’s multiple computers steered, accelerated, and watched for pedestrians, Lee posted a short video to her Twitter account. (Talk about hands-off driving.)

“Computers are much more alert than humans,” she said Wednesday on Morning Joe. “The more you drive it, the smarter it gets. So it continues to map, it continues to learn.”